With the increase in wireless communication methods as well as business travel, there has been a growing demand for systems and services that can connect travelers to their desired data, such as e-mail and Internet web sites, while they are aboard an aircraft. Further, there is a demand to control communication for various aircraft system devices (e.g., in-flight entertainment, in-flight networks, health and prognostics, cabin control, sub-system control, voice over IP, etc.) via wireless channels. To accommodate these multiple demands, broadband communication systems may be used to carry the various signals. As is known in the art, broadband communication systems carry signals through one or more communication paths, or channels, with each channel having its own associated signal frequency.
Currently known systems, however, often do not provide sufficient channel bandwidth and/or channel separation to ensure that transmitted signals do not interfere with each other. In aircraft, for example, currently proposed solutions attempt to send signals associated with definite purpose aircraft system devices and signals from passenger devices over the same frequency channels. This increases the likelihood of signal interference within the aircraft, potentially degrading the operation of the aircraft system devices and/or the passenger devices. For example, if a wireless network in the aircraft is designed to allow passengers to connect to the aircraft's wireless network via an 802.11b-compliant device and the aircraft later installs a security camera also operating according to the 802.11b standard, each wireless device will degrade the bandwidth, and thus the operation, of the other device. As a result, there is currently no known system that allows wireless passenger devices and wireless definite purpose system devices to co-exist reliably.
Currently known systems also do not offer a simple, reliable way to incorporate wireless aircraft system devices in an aircraft while ensuring that the system device signals will not interfere with each other, with other aircraft systems, or with systems in other aircraft. There is currently no standardized way to control and separate signals from different system devices so that signals from different devices remain distinct from each other.
There is a desire for a method and system that allocates broadband channels to accommodate signals from multiple system devices without causing signal interference within a communication system or between different devices operating within the system.
There is also a desire for a method that can be expanded to accommodate devices that are added to the communication system while minimizing the risk of signal interference.
There is a further desire for a method that can separate system device channels from user device channels to allow simultaneous operation of both system devices and user devices without performance degradation in either device type.